Due to the fact that corona has made the need for many restrictions and closures, I have not done much that is blog worthy, and so I have not written in about a month. But, last Wednesday night was Seder/the first night of Pesach, and there are a few things from Seder that I think are blog worthy.
First of all, because Israel doesn’t want people to go out and about except for essentials, this year there was a chametz pick up (that was given to non-Jews), and a chametz pick up (for the chametz that you are supposed to burn).
Also, when we were doing some of our pesach shopping, we were faced with some problems, and I bet you all have faced other problems and shortages when shopping. All year, Israel has had a butter shortage, but now this has really been a problem. Butter is an essential ingredient for pesach, and the only way we could get more than one stick of butter, was to buy a package of mini butters that you would get at a hotel. This is awful for the environment because they are each individually wrapped, but sometimes a need overrides the consequences.
Besides butter, Israel is currently having a shortage of eggs, and to help deal with that, eggs were being flown in. I think it is quite funny that eggs were probably the only thing landing at the airport.
Another unique thing about this year’s pesach is that we were under lockdown from Wednesday evening until midday on Thursday.
Our apartment is not ideal, and there are many things that have become problematic for pesach. The apartment did not come with any pesach dishes, so we had to buy four plates, a bowl, and 3 cups. There were, however, meat dishes that we kashered, and used for meat and parve foods. Since we only have three cups, when it came time to pour a cup for Elijah and a cup for Miriam during the Seder, we had to use plastic cups. Additionally, one evening part of our dinner was a salad, but our only bowl for pesach was being used for something else so Ima had to make salad in a pot.
I am looking forward to hopefully being back in our house in a few months. And, will be very appreciative for all of our pesach dishes in Seattle, including measuring cups. Yes, that’s right. We don’t have measuring cups for pesach. It has been quite difficult to problem solve.
I hope everyone had a good Seder(s)! And that everyone has enough eggs, butter, and dishes. חג שמח!
– Naomi
This is a Roladin Haggadah that was in our apartment (Roladin is a bakery). Inside are pictures of yummy desserts that will make you hungry during a long Magid/מגיד.